What did you do for your Gold Award project?
My project addressed the social stigmas and lack of understanding for people’s diverse talents and passions. My goal was to increase attendance at regularly lower attended events and increase the amount of school spirit through the organization of more school events. My target audience was the students at my high school with the intent to inform other high schools of the program’s results and create a guide or template on how to create a program like mine at other schools. As my project progressed, I realized that I needed to focus on why students weren’t attending events, so I partnered with the school administration and PTO to find alternate ways to communicate with students about events going on in my school.
How did you measure the impact your Gold Award project made on your target audience?
As you will see below from my presentation, my initial goals were not being met, but after reflection and refocus of the project, I was able to more effectively communicate events through the PTO, administration, and to students.
End of semester one reflection:
Not seeing the attendance that I wanted to be seeing at that point
Was asking RALC group for ideas and they still weren’t working
Felt like I was a failure and wasn’t making a difference
Needed to get to the root cause of attendance
I needed more help, so I partnered with my school’s booster club and found that:
Root of low attendance with communication
Also, an issue with general school spirit
Allowed me to better communicate and connect with my school administration
How is your project sustainable? How will your project continue to impact after your involvement?
My project will continue to be sustained for years to come. Since I did my project as part of the leadership academy at my school, I was able to work with the junior class and get a junior (now senior) to commit to continuing my project into the next school year. This individual is very passionate about school spirit and is involved in multiple extra-curricular activities, making her a perfect fit for this project. My leadership academy director also has expressed how much she enjoys this program and is committed to keeping it running in the years to come. By sharing my project with other schools, it will also be sustained because similar programs may start to pop up throughout the area and spread. While these programs might not be the exact same as mine they will be addressing the same or similar issues that I focused on.
What is your project’s global and/or national connection?
I was able to send my project to other schools in the midwest. Our school leadership group had partnered with another school to learn about the Leadership Academy. I was able to send my project to those individuals.
What did you learn about yourself?
I learned about project organization, time management, flexibility, and being open to change. Even though my initial project objectives weren’t being met, I was able to regroup and refocus my objectives to a more narrow project. I thought I would be able to increase attendance at events, but I discovered that finding better and broader ways of communication could be effective in increasing awareness, which will drive attendance.
How will earning your Gold Award impact you in the future?
I will be able to take the skills I learned, specifically communication with adults, learning to preserve, being flexible, and open to suggestions from others. These skills will be used in college in my classes, honors activities, and with my soccer team and coaches. I learned that communicating and sharing of ideas with others can help to keep projects moving forward and be successful.
Why do you feel the Gold Award was an important part of your Girl Scout experience?
The Gold Award was an important part of Girl Scouts as it takes all the skills and talents that you learn over the years and puts them together into one large project. I enjoyed completing the Journeys with my troop members. We were a troop from several different schools and it was always interesting to see how other schools were dealing with issues. Being responsible for a large project: planning, organizing, implementing, and completing it can be very rewarding. As I mentioned, I learned a lot of new skills and learned about working with other people of all ages.
How did earning your Gold Award help you become a G.I.R.L. (go-getter, innovator, risk-taker, leader)?
I believe the Gold Award helped me to become even more of a go-getter. I have always worked at being organized and staying on top of homework and projects, while playing soccer at the highest level possible. Being a go-getter has helped me get where I am today, at a Division 1 college, playing soccer, while obtaining a college degree, with a focus in nursing. I am also a part of the honors program at my college. When I see something that I want, I figure out what it will take to get it, and I work hard to achieve my goals.
**IMPORTANT NOTE: This blog represents only a small fraction of the hard work, dedication, and requirements that go into earning a Girl Scout Gold Award. It is simply a brief summary, which is meant to inspire Girl Scouts to Go Gold in the future. For more information on earning your Gold Award, please email highestawards@gscolorado.org.